


Star Wars: The Fallen Ones

by RichRichardson



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-06
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:08:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 4,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22586146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RichRichardson/pseuds/RichRichardson
Summary: When a young smuggler washes up on the backwater planet of Centrallis, where the Jedi are hunted and the evil Blood Battalion keep the populace afraid, he will have no choice but to embrace destiny and assemble a team to defeat this heinous threat.





	1. Chapter 1

No one arrives on Centrallis by mistake. There are no accidents on that backwater planet. Despite how unassuming it seems, every event happens for a reason and every trader, refugee, soldier and citizen was guided here by a strange feeling or indescribable power, an unknown force.

Teller Vonn, however, didn’t know that. At least, he didn’t yet. As he landed his ship in the city of Davn, all the young man could think about was finding a warm bed in which to sleep and forget.

“What is that piece of junk doing in my hangar?” asked the dockmaster, as the ship’s only crewmember disembarked.

“I needed a place to land,” Teller told him.

“You chose the wrong landing space, punk. Now, get that thing out of my sight, before I claim it and have it scrapped for parts.”

“Knock yourself out.” Teller tossed him the code-key to unlock the ship and strolled past the dockmaster without another word. He only stopped once to look back at the ship, observing its horrific plasma burns and the cargo hold that had been torn apart by the vacuum of space; then he walked away, forever.

Centrallis was a strange place and Teller quickly realized this as he took in his new surroundings. Davn was unlike anything he had ever seen, with its grey sky and blue pavement, and the collection of strange creatures walking through the streets.

He had no idea of where or how to start building a new life for himself. All he had were some extra clothes and a few contacts in the city.

“Gather round, citizens. This is a sight you will surely wish to see.”

Teller turned his head toward the voice and saw a crowd starting to gather. It was in an open marketplace with a large platform in the center, made of the same strange blue permacrete as the streets.

Four humans stood on the platform, high above Teller and the rest of the crowd. Two were clad in crimson armor, their faces covered by matching helmets with silver, reflective eyes. The jumpsuits they wore underneath were dark violet, barely distinguishable from black, and their red crystalline armor plating was jaded and shimmering, like shattered gems cast across blacktop. Even the helmets looked like they would cut you, if you dared run your hand across the brow.

The third person on the stage was a woman dressed in a coat that was also deep crimson, but made of leather with black metal studs. Instead of a helmet, her head bore a black tricorne, which she pulled off and held against her heart, as she stood before the growing crowd.

“What do you have to say for yourself, before the trial begins?”

“That this is absolutely ridiculous.”

“We’ll see about that.”

The woman was speaking to the fourth person standing on the platform, an old man with a noose tied around his neck. Even from far away, Teller could make out the red marks where the metallic rope dug into his flesh.

“Do you know what you have been charged with, Mr. Vix?”

“Something idiotic, I’m sure.”

“Not today. This isn’t the first time we’ve met, is it? You’ve slipped through our fingers twice before, despite our efforts to contain you. Now, we know why.”

“You plan to execute me for being lucky?”

“No, I’m going to execute you for being a Jedi.”

Everyone in the crowd whispered to one another. Teller couldn’t pick up the specifics, but one thing was clear; everyone had a strong opinion on the jedi, whether good or ill.

“You’re an idiot and so is anyone who believes this charge.”

“We’ll see about that. Let the trial begin.”

The woman drew a pistol of gleaming silver and fired it into the air. Silence swept over the crowd.

“Shaun Vix, the Blood Battalion hereby accuses you of being a Jedi. How do you plead?”

“Not guilty, of course.”

“Very well. You have escaped our righteous custody before, have you not?”

“Yes.”

“You, a single man, escaped from a well armed force of soldiers?”

“Just get to the damn point.”

“As you wish. There is simply no way that a single man could escape from an army, but somehow you did. What can we conclude from this?”

“That you need a better army?”

The crowd snickered along with Vix, and though she moved on quickly it was obvious that the woman was bothered by his retort.

“We can conclude that you had help. Most likely by supernatural means… or perhaps not.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m not saying anything, Mr. Vix. The fact is that if you did escape on your own, past an army and our impressive defenses, then we have no choice but to assume that you are a Jedi and too dangerous to be kept alive.”

“Maybe you’re underestimating me.”

“Or maybe you had help. Maybe a person or group assisted in your escape.”

Vix looked down at his feet, where the trapdoor was ready to drop from beneath him.

“So, what will it be? Is there someone else you’d like to turn in or do we need to kill you?”

The old man didn’t even stop to think. “I suppose I don’t have a choice, then.” He turned to the crowd and spoke boldly. “I am a Jedi.”

As the others around him began to frantically question how this could have happened, Teller looked at the woman onstage and saw the seething anger boiling under her skin.

“Fine then. May you become one with the force, Mr. Vix.” She turned to one of the armored soldiers who, after receiving only a small nod, pulled a lever and let the old man drop.


	2. Chapter 2

Out of all the people who had witnessed Shaun Vix’s execution, no one was more happy to leave the scene than Teller. He’d been looking for peace and this wasn’t how he had expected to start that journey.

As he sat at the bar, in the middle of a backwater cantina, he fumbled around in his bag for a few moments, before pulling out an old breathing mask and placing it over the lower half of his face. The small motor inside kicked on, releasing a low growl-like sound with every breath, but it helped to calm his nerves and keep his heart rate steady.

While Teller waited for his contact to show up, he listened to the conversations around him and heard several words being repeated over and over again. Some of them he recognized, others he didn’t, Jedi, Huntress, Blood Battalion, Demagogues, Gangrene, Rabble. All of them had meanings that he had yet to comprehend.

However, he soon heard a word that made chills go up his spine and his blood run cold.

Mandalorians.

Three warriors strode in with an enviable confidence and the tone at the bar instantly shifted. People went about their business, but did so differently. Eyes darted between the nearest cover, paths were cleared as they walked about, faces were hidden, voices were low and everyone kept their hand within an inch of their blaster.

All three were dressed head to toe in their archetypal metal armor. The tallest one was painted in gaudy orange, the shortest wore green and carried the biggest gun, while the third was a dark shade of red that matched the soldiers from earlier, complete with a reflective silver T-shaped slit in his helmet, rather than black.

“We need to make this fast.”

Teller had heard Mole’s shuffling footsteps behind him, but didn’t think that his contact would show up with Mandalorians patrolling the room.

“I pulled your brother’s savings, like you asked for. The Hutts weren’t happy about it, though.”

“Did they really think I was going to let them keep it?”

“Only because they thought you were gone. When your ship showed up in the scrapyard, everyone pegged you and your family for dead, Teller. It’s not an unfair conclusion to jump to, considering the shape it was in.”

As Mole searched his pockets, Teller took one last look around the cantina and once again it was hard to draw his eyes away from the Mandalorians, with their terrifying masks and ominous presence. The only thing that managed to draw him away from them was a girl, sitting at a nearby table.

There were a lot of reasons for Teller to look at her. She was pretty and sitting alone, but her short mohawk and the scar on her left cheek conveyed that she wasn’t someone to be messed with.

However, the thing that most drew him in was the fact that she was looking at him. Her eyes may have drifted away, but he knew that she was focused on him with one hand on her blaster. He could feel it.

“Teller, I think I found it.”

“There’s nothing to find. You’re not looking for anything.”

“Don’t you-”

“You’re not giving me anything. We’re just two friends meeting up for a quick drink.”

Mole quickly got the meaning and put his hands up on the counter, making a large motion to the bartender for a drink and consequently showing his empty hands.

Teller looked back at the woman and saw that her drink, though it remained in her hand, hadn’t even been sipped.

“So buddy, are there any legitimate matters you need taken care of, during your time in Davn?”

“I need a place to stay.” He felt the few credit chips he had in his pocket. “Somewhere cheap.”

“There’s a refugee camp just a few blocks from here.”

“That sounds awful.”

“No, it’s actually a pretty nice place. I’d barely even call it a camp, really. The lady who runs it keeps it in great shape.”

“Fine. Where is it?”

“Just head south, down the main road. You can’t miss it.”

“Thanks, Mole. I’ll be in touch.”


	3. Chapter 3

Teller watched his back as he strode down the street and felt his heart constantly racing. Trying to watch for pickpockets, thugs and good-old-fashioned rude pedestrians was driving his senses mad.

“Calm down. Keep centered,” Teller said to himself. His father used to tell him that. He always had a magical way of abating his son’s nerves.

Though the familiar phrase did calm him at first, the realization that his father would never say that to him again caused him to panic.

He once again pulled out his breathing mask.

“Your pockets are looking a little heavy, human,” said an oversized Besalisk. “Why don’t you lighten your load by handing over a few credits?”

“Back off,” Teller said to the four-armed bandit. “You’re not getting anything from me.”

“Big mistake, pal.”

“Yeah, nobody messes with us.”

Teller hadn’t even realized that there was a third person present, but he soon noticed the slimy-looking rodian peeking his head out from behind his much larger friend. “Do you really think you can out-muscle us?”

“Of course not. That’s what blasters are for.”

Teller grabbed his gun just as the Besalisk reached out to grab him, but a sudden voice made them stop inches from hurting each other.

“That’s enough, Thagg,” said a woman in a brown tunic. “I told you to stop harassing people.”

“We both know you couldn’t keep this place open without the cash I’m bringing in.” The Besalisk turned and shoved a sack of credit chips into the woman’s hand.

“Go check on your mother. She is wondering where you are. We’ll talk about this later.”

The two thugs turned and walked away. The woman looked down and pondered for a moment, before reluctantly putting the credits in a satchel on her hip.

However, Teller couldn’t help but notice that every time the woman moved he could hear the distinctive sound of credit chips jingling in a loose pocket. The belt that wrapped her tunic around her hips had multiple packs and parcels hanging from it, each one filled to bursting.

“Where did you come from, stranger?”

“I’m a trader, but I lost my ship. I’m just looking for a place to stay, until I can get a new one.”

“Oh, that’s so sad. I’m not sure I can help you get a ship, but I can give you a place to stay.” She reached out and shook his hand. “My name is Thayla. I run the offworlder camp.”

“That sounds like a pretty big job.”

“Not as much as you would think. It’s mostly just a lot of babysitting and collecting donations.”

“Donations, huh?” Teller said, looking where she had stuffed Thagg’s credits. “I guess that’s one word for it.”

“That’s not what I meant. Thagg means well, but he’s… well, he’s just a little bit lost. There are new legitimate opportunities opening up in Davn every day, but for someone who was raised in a lawless environment, old habits die hard.”

Teller and Thayla continued talking as they walked, discussing the city and its strange inhabitants before finally stepping up to the camp.

“We’re here,” she said, as they strode up to an old metal gate. On the other side was a modest looking apartment building, surrounded by large tents and a variety of humans and aliens of all different shapes and colors.

“This place is a lot nicer than I thought it would be.”

“That’s what most people say,” Thayla told him, beaming.

Teller was surprised at how happy many of the residents seemed. Children ran around, playing in square patches of grass cut into the blue permacrete. Adults huddled around large communal stoves and dished out portions of stew to anyone who came by.

“How can you guys afford all this? It must be hard with the Blood Battalion hanging around.”

“Actually, the Blood Battalion is one of our biggest supporters.”

“Really?”

“Yes and speaking of which,” she turned to face a pair of red troopers, standing at the entrance to the camp. “I’ll be right back.”

At first, Teller was worried that the soldiers had come with malicious intent, and they did seem to be angry at first, but soon they started laughing and joking with her, before emptying their pockets of every valuable item they had.

As the two dazed troopers walked away, Teller saw Thayla wave her hand in front of them and mouth a few words, before returning to his side.

“Come on. I’ll show you where you’ll be staying.”


	4. Chapter 4

The stew was more watery than he had hoped, but Teller didn’t complain. A small donation was all it took for Thayla to set him up with a tent and a hot meal.

He carefully peeled the wrapping off of two heavy vittlebiscuits, each about the width of his pinky finger. He plopped them both down into the broth and they quickly absorbed enough moisture to take up half of the bowl.

Through the flaps, he noticed Mole skulking around and waved at him.

“I’ve been wandering around for half an hour.”

“Sorry.”

Mole pulled the familiar purse from his jacket and set it in front of Teller. “Everything is there, minus my fee of course.”

“Of course.” Teller rolled his eyes and put the credits away.

“Is there anything else I can do for you?”

Teller looked out of the tent once again and saw a line of Blood Battalion soldiers gleefully handing their credits over to Thayla. “I think I’ll be ok, for right now.”

“Alright.”

Their business was done, but Mole awkwardly took his time moving over to the exit.

“You know, I was always close with your father.”

“Ok.”

“… Is he alright?”

“No.”

Teller shoved a piece of the spongy vittlebiscuit into his mouth, despite having lost his appetite.

Mole finally cleared out and headed for the gate to the camp, and Teller finally stopped eating when he saw the tiny man close it behind him.

After throwing his knapsack over his shoulder, Teller walked into the sunshine and watched the other people bustling around the camp. He didn’t look too closely at the shady deals going on in the dark corners, but there weren’t very many of those. In fact, it mostly seemed to be families in the tents around his.

As he walked over to the large building in the middle of the tent city, which was made from the same blue permacrete as the ground, he saw two different groups of humans wrangling children and one pregnant ithorian arching its back to support the extra weight.

The small rodian who had tried to rob him showed up too, but he ran back to his tent as soon as he saw Teller.

The lost young man looked through the windows on the first floor and found that it was a large lobby area, also filled with individual tents and sheets, strung up to provide some amount of privacy.

However, as he opened the doors and walked inside, one very strange area did stand out to him.

In the center of the room was a clearing, with Thayla at its center. Almost fifty small children and young teenagers stood in rows, holding their arms at their sides.

“Good, now raise them up to the sky,” she said, her voice calm and sweet.

The children obediently stretched upward, as if trying to press their palms on the ceiling.

“Now forward. Left hand and foot out forward.”

The entire class drew their right arms into their chest and exhaled.

“Excellent. Remember that serenity is our strength. Draw your energy in, but never exert it for any reason other than defense.”

As he reached the edge of the circle, Teller could feel the combined tension of all the individuals performing the move. In fact, most everyone in the room seemed tense and stared at the younglings with brows furrowed and eyes squinted.

“And slowly release.”

Little by little, Teller and everyone around him felt their bodies grow lighter. The children extended their right hands with an open palm, but so leisurely and calm that it could barely have been called a strike.

“Never in anger. Always remember that.”


	5. Chapter 5

Teller came from a life where nothing was ever free. His father wouldn’t get out of bed without compensation.

“I won’t even meet with a client for less than five hundred credits,” he used to say. “Hutts are all about frivolity and gluttony. They want the best of the best, so overcharging can actually make you more appealing, as long as you live up to it.”

He would always laugh as he said that, giving off this aura of pride and showing the deep wrinkles that came with a life of smuggling.

“It’s a tight balance. Make sure the client pays what you’re worth and be worth paying for. That’s the only way to make it in this galaxy.”

His father’s words rattled around inside of Teller’s head, as he walked through the hallways of Thayla’s complex.

The central building wasn’t that large, but none of the doors were numbered or marked, making his target hard to find.

“Excuse me,” he called, knocking on a nearby door until someone opened up.

“Yes?” asked a human woman, who was about seventy years old and wearing a simple tunic, similar to Thayla’s.

“I’m sorry to bother you, but Thayla asked me to get something from her room and she didn’t tell me where it is.”

“Her cot is right through that door,” she said, pointing to one unassuming door among the thirty other unassuming doors.

“Thanks.”

“Be serene.”

Teller raised an eyebrow at her strange goodbye, but didn’t bother to think about it too much. He had bigger things to worry about. Thayla was still downstairs, but he took one look around, just to make sure no one could see him.

Surprisingly, the door wasn’t locked. “Terrible security,” he said, before suddenly finding out why she hadn’t bothered.

There wasn’t anything in the room other than her cot. A metal rod mounted on the wall held her entire wardrobe, two spare tunics in that same simple brown color.

“What’s she been giving the Blood Battalion?” he asked himself, knocking on the walls and ceiling in search of hollow chambers where something could be stored away. “Nobody hands over their credits for nothing.”

He pounded on the floor, frantic and frustrated, before finally checking under her bed.

“It must be.”

Teller pulled out a small square box, no wider than his palm, and shook it to see if there was something inside. He could hear the shifting of fabric and feel something else moving around, but the lock was too strong to break with his bare hands.

“Come on.”

He pulled at the latch, trying to break it, until it finally cracked. At first he was thrilled, but then he felt his whole body freeze as something overwhelmed him.

It was a feeling unlike anything he had ever felt, warm and yet terrifying, confined and yet powerful.

A yellow light emerged from under the broken lid, and as the light washed over his skin Teller felt whole again.

“Teller, stop,” Thayla screamed, as she sprinted down the hallway.

Teller dropped the box and it clattered to the floor.

Before he knew it, Thayla grabbed the metal rod from the wall and held it up to his neck, pinning him with one of its blunt ends.

He pulled his blaster, only to have it knocked away, but it gave him enough time to scramble across the floor and out the doorway.

Thayla was too busy checking the box to go after him, so he ran as fast as he could.

“Come back here.”

Teller finally stopped for breath once he was around the corner, but Thayla caught up without a problem and he was once again pinned to the wall by his throat.

“Are you going to kill me?”

“No,” she told him. “But we need to talk.”


	6. Chapter 6

“Whatever that is, is it how you’ve been bribing the Blood Battalion?”

Teller’s first question took Thayla off guard. “I haven’t been bribing them at all. They’ve been giving donations.”

The two of them were sitting in Thayla’s room, which had formerly been a broom closet. Teller had already insisted on sitting by the door and the answer she had just given had not helped him lower his guard.

“Nobody gives anything away for free.”

“The world is what you make of it,” she told him. “I believe that there is a good person buried down deep inside of every one of us. Sometimes you have to really dig to find it, but it’s always there.”

“What?”

Thayla rolled her eyes. “Look, some of them donate money to help a camp full of vulnerable people and families. Just leave it at that.”

“Fine,” he said, through gritted teeth. “Then what is that thing?”

Thayla picked up the box and held it in her hands for a moment, before tossing it over to Teller. The constant yellow glow suddenly became brighter and he was overwhelmed by the strange feeling once again.

Scared, he threw the box down and frantically pried the door open, stumbling out into the hallway and calling, “What did you do to me?”

“Nothing,” she said. “Be quiet or someone will hear you.”

“Are you one of those Jedi?” Teller asked her.

The question made Thayla’s blood turn cold and her skin fall pale.

“I heard about them when I arrived. They do magic stuff, right?”

She tried to shush him one last time.

“You just tried to do some Jedi magic on me, I’ll bet. That’s why-”

Those words were the last thing he said, before she quickly grabbed her staff and knocked him out cold.

* * *

Thayla had never liked violence. It made her skin crawl, but somehow the need for it always found her.

“What did you eat?” she asked, pulling Teller by his shoulders and wondering if she should have asked Thagg for help.

It took all of her strength to haul the young man to the nearest alleyway and hours to move him out the back exit without being seen, moving between shadows and waiting for passersby to clear out.

Every few minutes she rubbed the top of his head and whispered, “Stay asleep. You are serene,” into his unconscious mind.

After one final heave, she dropped him behind a dumpster and stopped to catch her breath, only to quickly realize that his foot was still visible from the street. She started to bend down, but quickly decided to try something else.

Thayla checked both ends of the alleyway, tucked herself behind the dumpster, checked both ends again, looked above herself and then checked both ends of the alleyway again for onlookers, before reaching her hand out and closing her eyes.

When breathing deeply and focusing all her thoughts, she could feel Teller’s heartbeat and every muscle in his body. She could faintly sense the neighbors in the building next to her. She could even feel the presence of a small bird, singing in the fading light of the sun.

However, no matter her concentration and no matter her focus, his leg would not move.

“Blast,” she said in frustration, even more exhausted than before.

“Where are they?” said a familiar voice, the sound of which made Thayla’s breath catch in her throat. “Where is the Jedi?”

Thayla poked her head out of the alleyway, just enough to see the Huntress standing at the gates.

Two members of her Blood Battalion kicked them open without warning and the offworlders beyond it cowered in fear.

“You might not know how things work here on Centrallis,” she said, pulling her coat back to show the silver pistols on her hips. “Maybe there are Jedi on your world who protect people or at least don’t rampage through the streets killing the innocent. We weren’t so lucky.”

Thayla’s fists curled at the heinous accusation.

“Now, word has gotten back to me about a Jedi at this camp, pathetically hiding like a worm beneath the sand. You have exactly five minutes to find them and hand them over, before we-”

“There will be no need for all that.”

Every eye turned to the old woman struggling to open the front doors of the building.

“Kinnie!” Luckily, Thayla’s frantic whisper was not heard by anyone.

“I won’t be any trouble. I’ll go quietly.”

“We aren’t taking prisoners.”

The Huntress put on her toughest voice, but Kinnie just laughed. “It’s too expensive taking care of an old woman like me, anyway.”

The woman wore a simple brown tunic, almost identical to Thayla’s. She didn’t carry a lightsaber or any weapon. She was struggling just to get down the three steps outside the building.

Eighteen Blood Battalion troopers surrounded her, with more behind the Huntress and even more outside the gates.

Kinnie extended her arm and one did step forward to help her down the steps, before quickly pointing their blaster back at her head.

“Do you have any last words?”

Kinnie looked at the young woman not with fear, but with pity. “Whatever it is you are looking for, child, I hope you find it.”

In her last moments, Thayla could have sworn she saw her old master look at her, with those eyes that were both world-weary and kind, before the blaster shot landed in her chest.

To the surprise of every person around, even the Huntress herself, Kinnie’s body never hit the ground, only her empty tunic.


End file.
